Media Release

29 May, 2007

Youth gain seat on Waitakere's Council

The Waitakere City Youth Council has been given official representation at the main council in order to ensure the city’s youth voice is heard.

At this week's council meeting, 30 May 7pm, the youth council will be given a formal seat at the council, enabling it to bring forward reports and recommendations that the main council can use in developing the kind of city tomorrow’s citizens will want to inherit.

Proving it is taking youth seriously, the council has now provided a seat for youth council delegates alongside the community boards and Te Taumata Runanga, at Council meetings.

Like the other groups, the youth council will provide a report of its activities in the preceding month and be available to contribute to the council’s debate.

Waitakere is thought to be the first council in New Zealand to provide such a privilege to its youth representatives.

“The eco city is about providing a community that can sustain or even improve its quality of life, generation after generation and part of getting that right, is taking note of the genuine concerns and aspirations of today’s youth,” says Mayor Harvey.

“We can’t get that right if we do not listen seriously to what they have to tell us. The youth council in its turn has to give us good advice and we have been impressed by what we have seen from them over the last year. And it is very encouraging to see that they have surveyed 11,000 young people in the city, during this month, in order to get an accurate sampling of youth opinion,” Mayor Harvey says.

Deputy chairman of the youth council, Amanda Mitchell, says the move is a “great way of breaking down the boundaries between the youth and the older generation”.

“Just by being able to sit in on their meetings we will be able to see how their decisions get made,” she says.

ENDS

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